


Spending Caps In the Underworld

by ShoreDitch



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 3
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-12
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-19 05:02:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29994309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShoreDitch/pseuds/ShoreDitch
Summary: Just a snippet of my personal Fallout 3 stories. Grace goes behind the back of her brother to help people that may not really want it.





	Spending Caps In the Underworld

**Author's Note:**

> Just a snippet of my personal Fallout 3 stories. The Lone Wanderer is actually a pair of twins, though most of the story remains the same. Mostly just wanted to write something other than school work! I might have some more stories for these three!

Grace couldn’t fault her brother for how he reacted. Though he was the younger twin, he was always overprotective of her. No one could mess with his sister except for him. She was always the quiet kid who was picked on, and Stewart had gotten into more than one fistfight over Butch or one of the other Tunnel Snakes harrasing her. Grace patched her brother up later, unbeknownst to her father, and made sure he didn’t fall behind in repayment. They both had their strengths and weaknesses. But they seemed to complement one another.   
So when the moral differences began to strain their relationship, it made it harder and harder for them to get along. Stewart didn’t care like Grace did. He didn’t intentionally set out to hurt anyone who didn’t deserve it, but he didn’t go out of his way to help anyone either, unless a hefty amount of caps was involved.   
Meanwhile, Grace tried to help wherever she could. She had helped in her father’s clinic for years, and had begun to get more formal training before they left the vault. Normally Stewart would put up with her attempts at making the Wasteland a better place, but it seemed like she had gone too far this time.  
“Jesus Grace, 3,000 caps? Even for you, this is insane,” Jet ran a hand through the blond mohawk he had gotten recently. “But, I guess it’ll pay off. I saw the guy in the bar. If looks could kill…”  
Grace tried to smile, but failed. She wanted to tell him what she planned to do with the contract she had bought, but couldn’t bear to see her brother get angry at her. Maybe she could make up a story of why Charon was suddenly gone.  
“So this satellite dish we have to get, are you sure we can find it at the Museum?” he suddenly asked. They were sitting on their individual beds in the small room, facing one another.  
“It should be. The information is solid. I’m just worried about the supermutants,” Grace told him. She looked in a hand mirror, wondering if she should cut her own hair. It was a dark brown, and she more resembled their father, rather than her mother. Apparently Stewart took after her, and had prided himself on this when they were young, saying she had loved him more. Even as a girl, Grace knew this was ridiculous. Her mother had died when they were born, and likely loved them the same, but she fell for the taunts.  
“We’ll be able to handle it. I wonder how good that ghoul is at sneaking around,” Stewart pondered.   
Esther pulled the curtain around her bed shut, not wanting to talk about it any longer. Charon had said he had his own living spaces in the bar, and that was where he would be when they were to set out.  
“Goodnight then!” Stewart called.   
She wasn’t sure why she had made the rash decision without consulting her brother. The caps belonged to both of them, but when asked if she would buy Charon, she said yes before thinking about it. It made her angry to see others in compulsory service, and according to that scumbag Ahzrukhal, that was all Charon had ever known. So, she had laid out her caps, and purchased the contract that binded Charon to her.   
Then, Charon had killed Ahzrukhal, and told her where to find him, leaving her at a loss for words. She had the man’s blood on her face, for Christ’s sake. Grace wasn’t able to tell Charon she didn’t intend to keep his contract.  
A few hours later, Grace woke with a start. She couldn’t remember her dream, but knew it hadn’t been pleasant. Her pip-boy showed it was 2 in the morning. Grace sighed. She was wide awake, and knew she wouldn’t be able to fall back asleep. She sighed, getting out of bed and throwing her vault suit over the thin pants and shirt she was already wearing. It hung loose on her now, she realized. She supposed all the travelling they did, along with meals that were only when they had a moment of peace would do that to someone.  
Pulling back the curtain, Grace saw her brother was sleeping peacefully. He looked younger than he has of late, his face relaxed. Maybe once they found their father, he would calm down some, become a little more caring. They could be a happy family again.  
She wandered the halls a bit, not surprised to see some residents of The Underworld still awake. People had their problems, and often it kept them up. She had seen the same in Megaton. Grace had her laser pistol on her, just in case.   
The hall with the old fossils was just ahead and despite her fears that the old bones would fall on her, Grace entered. They loomed overhead, and Grace was in awe at the size of the creatures. She had thought super mutants were huge, but the bones alone were larger than any creature she had seen. Somehow they had once lived in her world.  
Grace furrowed her brows when she heard footsteps behind her. She took a breath to steady herself. This wasn’t her home, and likely someone had a room in this wing. But she put a hand on her pistol nonetheless.  
She was reading about the t-rex, when someone cleared their throat. She tried her best to keep a calm face, and turned with a smile.   
“Oh! Hey Charon. Have you ever explored this wing? There’s some pretty interesting knowledge to be found,” she was babbling. Charon didn’t answer.  
“So, uh, there was something I wanted to talk to you about,” Grace sat on a bench, taking the contract out of a zipped pocket in her suit. “Don’t mention it to Stewart if you see him- he’s my brother, that blond boy with me- but I don’t want to keep your contract.”  
Charon’s face was unreadable. Grace was somewhat used to ghouls at this point, and did her best to not let their ruined faces frighten her. She would hate it if someone treated her that way. But she thought that Charon’s face would be just as unemotional if he was human.  
“You can sell it for a hefty price. I know a few buyers,” he told her.  
“What I mean is, I don’t want anyone but you to have it,” his eyes widened ever so slightly, and Grace figured she surprised him. “I can’t imagine you much like being ordered around because someone carried a piece of paper with your name on it. So here.”  
She held out the paper towards Charon, but he didn’t take it. He still stared, his arms crossed.   
“I can’t do that,” Charon finally responded. “I don’t know what will happen if I sign my own name on that thing, and I don’t want to risk it.”  
Grace was confused. She wasn’t sure how the paper had so much power over him. Though it could be some sort of implant in his head, or a vault experiment. She would look into it, if time allowed.   
“Well, I don’t want it, and I don’t want to sell you to anyone else,” Grace pondered it for a moment. Perhaps there was something she could do. “So, since I have this paper, you have to do whatever I say, right?”  
He nodded. “There are some exceptions that are listed, but yeah, that’s the idea.”  
Grace read through it. Some simple guidelines, really only outlawing violence on the part of whoever holds the contract towards Charon. It seemed like her plan would work.   
“So Charon, as my first and only order to you, I want you to do whatever you want. Say whatever, go wherever, whatever your heart desires,” she said.   
Charon cocked his head, seeming to think about it. “Whatever I want?”  
“Sure, just don’t do anything too bad. Hell, you could stay here and take over that bar if you wanted.”  
“You know, you wasted 3,000 caps if you really want me to do this. All for a piece of paper.”  
“Well, I’d rather waste the caps as long as I can help someone. My brother doesn’t really understand, but the Wasteland needs good people, and I want to be one of those few,” she had once read in her father’s textbooks about how no person did good deeds for selfless reasons. She was no exception. If she could do good, it made her feel better. She yawned.  
“I don’t really have anywhere to go,” Charon confessed. “I don’t… I’ve been under Ahzrukhal’s employment for nearly twenty years now. I’ve never planned for this.”  
Grace wanted to hear him out, but also wanted to go to bed. She would have a very angry Stewart to deal with in the morning.  
“You two said you were heading for the Museum of Technology right? That’s a pretty dangerous spot,” Charon said. “Kind of defeats what you were going for, but what if I travelled with you guys, at least for a while?”  
Grace couldn’t hide the surprise on her face. “That would be fine with me. You obviously know how to fight, and it’ll keep me from having to tell Stewart the truth. For a while at least.”  
“I’ll meet you two at the entrance tomorrow morning.”  
Grace headed towards the entrance, walking alongside the tall ghoul. “Hey, why were you over here anyways?”  
Charon shrugged. “You hadn’t told me anything, so I figured I’d keep an eye on you. I was waiting outside of Carol’s. It’s obvious you need someone to watch out for you. It took awhile for you to notice me.”  
Grace reddened. “Stewart’s a little better at that than me, but yeah, I agree. I’ve been working on it. But you should have been asleep!”  
“I don’t sleep. I don’t need to,” Charon told her bluntly.  
Grace wasn’t sure how to respond. She had never read anything like that, and wondered if it would be a side effect of his exposure to radiation. She knew it would be rude to ask questions, but wanted to take notes about the differences between humans and irradiated persons. Maybe another doctor in the Wastes would explain some things to her.   
“Well, I suppose I’ll see you in the morning,” if he didn’t sleep, she couldn’t really say “sleep well”. “Rest up!”  
Grace finally drifted off to sleep, knowing she would be exhausted in the morning. It had been for the better that she talked to Charon away from her brother though.   
By this time tomorrow, they would be one step closer to finding their father.


End file.
